Flipping the Classroom: Grade 6 Edition

A question on box-and-whisker plots from Learningpod.

Looking for classroom materials to make flipped learning a complete experience? Try resources from Learningpod. We have thousands of carefully constructed questions and question sets with explanations. If for some reason you don’t find your topic in our inventory, it’s easy to create your own practice questions using our software.

In this blog post, we’ll model how to use Learningpod in flipping the classroom. While the lesson applies to Grade 6 Math, the theory and practice of flipping applies across subject areas.

Lesson Planning Challenge: You need to teach a lesson on Displaying Numerical Data (6.SP.B4; “Display numerical data in plots on a number line, including data plots, histograms, and box plots.”) You really want to keep students engaged, knowing that fundamental knowledge of statistics is essential for the higher grades as well as in careers.

To reinforce learning while adding variety, you could include government sources, videos, and question sets (“pods”) from Learningpod:

Start every day with a “Do Now” exercise. For example, you could launch the Displaying Data unit by sharing a U.S. Census infographic and asking students for their interpretations. In subsequent units, you could have students run through one of our subject-specific pods to ascertain their understanding of a subject or of the previous night’s assignment. For example, students watch the Khan Academy video on “Creating Box-and-Whisker Plots” one night for homework. When they come to class the next day, their “Do Now” exercise consists of Learningpod’s box-and-whisker plots pod.

In class, rather than the standard lesson (one in which you lecture, and students take notes), shake things up in the classroom. To check understanding of a new subject, pair students and assign pods. In our lesson, students try out our line and double line graphs after they have worked with bar and double bar graphs pod. (Some research indicates that students actually prefer working in pairs rather than on their own. See our post, “Not Enough Tablets to go Around the Classroom?“) You can circulate to check on the pairs as they work.

For at-home viewing, incorporate videos (when possible). In true flipped learning, videos often take the place of “old-school” standard lectures that feature you in front of the class and your students taking notes. There are many sources; we recommend Khan Academy videos, which are readily available and grade-appropriate.

Before test day, be sure to wrap up the unit in a way that is engaging as your previous days’ delivery. For a whole-class exercise, we recommend an infographic from the U.S. Census Bureau that emphasizes salary increases as a function of higher education. It’ll keep the students motivated. For a review game, select from our library of Common Core questions, or sign up to author your own. (We know you’ll like our easy-to-use math editor!)

Like what you read? Download a five-day lesson for this challenge, integrating Learningpod, U.S. Census data, and Khan Academy videos.